Issue 26 - Gabriel Orozco

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Quick Overview

+ Boomerang made from aircraft-grade birch+ Individually silkscreened on the front+ Laser-etched on the back+ Limited run of 1000+ Includes limited run fold-out poster+ Made in the USA+ Released spring 2015

Issue 26 is by internationally renowned visual artist Gabriel Orozco. Known for his investigations into circularity, cycles, rotation, spinning, and movement, Orozco is, perhaps not surprisingly, also an avid boomerang thrower. His issue fuses his art and his sport by taking the form of a wooden boomerang.

Orozco’s sleek, black, lightweight design, aptly named “Black Feather”, is based on a design by the late German thrower, Volker Behrens. According to Orozco, “New boomerangs are usually based on other boomerang designs, in a kind of evolving generational fashion.”

Orozco’s boomerangs were manufactured in the USA by Leggacy Boomerangs, whose president also happens to be a board member of the United States Boomerang Association. Each one was individually silkscreened on the front and laser-etched on the back. There are both right-handed and left-handed models. The boomerang comes with a limited-run fold out poster and exclusive interview with the artist on the subject of boomerangs. Like all Thing issues, it is packaged in a custom-made box.

Gabriel Orozco was born in Jalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. He was educated at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas between 1981 and 1984 and at the Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid between 1986 and 1987. Orozco gained his reputation in the early 1990s with his exploration of drawing, photography, sculpture and installation. His work has since been widely exhibited internationally. Most recent solo exhibitions have been held at the Guggenheim Museum, New York (2012), the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (2013), the Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2013) and the Moderna Museet, Sweden (2014). An important retrospective of the artist’s work traveled from the Museum of Modern Art, New York to the Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland, the Centre Pompidou, Paris, and the Tate Modern, London (2009-2011). Orozco has participated in the Venice Biennale three times and Documenta X and XI. He has received numerous awards, including the Seccio Espacios Alternativos prize at the Salon Nacional de Artes Plasticas in Mexico City (1987), a DAAD artist-in-residence grant in Berlin (1995), and the German Blue Orange prize (2006). An avid world traveler, Orozco, his wife Maria Gutierrez, and their son Simón, divide their time between Paris, New York and Mexico City.

"Throwing is similar in a way to the Japanese archery Kyudo - when you throw you must have full concentration, be aware of the body’s position, the mind, and the breath in relationship to the landscape. It is about the enjoyment of the moment, but it is also an exercise, a sport. It is not easy; it is hard work. The beauty of the object and its performance while flying are fully perfected when the body is in perfect connection with the environment and the dynamics of the boomerang....You definitely learn to breathe the horizon!" - Gabriel Orozco

"My work includes ideas of circularity, cycles, rotation, spinning, movement. The beginning of my work is always related to the things that happen in my everyday life. So maybe I am throwing boomerangs because of my work, because I like to draw in the air." - Gabriel Orozco